Procrustes Stretched
"intuition and imagination and intelligence"
I'd have to agree. Do you see any possible terms whereby the President might allow a state to peacefully secede? If not, doesn't that beg the question of who is really taking up arms against who?
No on terms that a President would accept. The President swears to uphold the USC.
The question is not begged. A state can try to peacefully ignore federal government, but that would force the hand of force. It is the federal government's duty to protect the Union from all threats foreign and domestic.
So whether or not they literally take up arms, you're saying the act of secession itself is an act of aggression? Doesn't that make the term "Union" a misnomer? I think "union" implies some sort of voluntary agreement between two parties, whereas if no state is allowed to leave this "union" it would seem there is no union at all but rather a single entity.
When the Union was formed the states agreed ahead of time that all were in if a certain number voted in. Everyone was in whether they voted that way or not. They used argument and debate and conversation to reach an agreed upon consensus. All in.
If all the states wanted a break up, or if an amendment was passed that laid out All Out if a certain number agree...But we cannot have anarchy where any state decides to leave affecting the Union as a whole.
The federal government, the USA is a single entity. The individual states have powers under that entity, but the powers of individual or groups of states cannot overrule the federal powers, except by an amendment process laid out. Madison and others had plenty to say on this after the Union was formed.